During his late 1977 story conference with Leigh Brackett for 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘮𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘉𝘢𝘤𝘬, George Lucas talked about some of his earliest ideas about exactly who the clones were. Early on, he considered that Lando might be a leftover clone from the Clone Wars, and that there might be entire clone planets with different countries and clans. Particularly interesting here is that Lucas is already suggesting there's some ambiguity about “whether the clones were good or bad.” He only says “they were slightly weird in their own way and were partly responsible for the war.” So “slightly weird” and “partly responsible.” Lucas's ideas about the clones were already pretty far from the pre-prequel fan assumptions that the clones were the obvious bad guys, or that they were like some horde of slavering mutants. By the time he was writing the second draft on his own in the wake of Brackett's death, Lucas had dropped the idea of Lando being a clone. But at the same time, he was developing with his concept artists the character of Boba Fett, who (as mentioned in the quoted post) apparently wore the armor of a group of mysterious stormtrooper-like warriors who “came from the far side of the galaxy” and were somehow involved in the Clone Wars. Lucas has said that he conceptualized the stormtroopers early on as probably being clones--which is not hard to believe, since it was a pretty natural connection to make, and many people independently had this idea. So it is also plausible that Lucas had some inkling that these Clone Wars–era, “super-stormtrooper” warriors, who apparently came from a specific part of the galaxy, might have been a clone faction. Of course, that doesn't mean he had any notion that Boba Fett himself was a clone, since he may or may not have been merely wearing the armor. And then the armor became “Mandalorian.” But the broad outline of the backstory seems to have preserved some hint of there being a remnant from the Clone Wars present on Cloud City.

Furthermore, in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘮𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘉𝘢𝘤𝘬, Rinzler transcribes this early handwritten story note made by Lucas: “Somewhere the good father (Ben) watches over the child’s fate, ready to assert his power when critically needed. Father changes into Darth Vader, who is a passing manifestation, and will return triumphant. Luke travels to the end of the world and makes sacrifice to undo the spell put on his father. He succeeds and happiness is restored.” Rinzler notes that many of these are undated, fragmentary notes written on yellow legal pads, and that Lucas frequently reshuffled notes he had made for earlier films in order to draw on them while he was making later films. Indeed, for at least some of these notes Rinzler found in files associated with 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘮𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘉𝘢𝘤𝘬, this is unambiguously the case: they are definitely notes Lucas made while he was developing the story for the first film. This cannot be proven in this specific case, but it is something to keep in mind. So that being said, observe that this note fragment is almost entirely ripped from material contained in that Bettelheim excerpt published in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘠𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘳 on December 1, 1975: 1) “Fairy tales indicate that somewhere hidden the good fairy godmother watches over the child’s fate, ready to assert her power when it is critically needed.” 2) “And, in any case, as the story tells him, the wolf is a passing manifestation; Grandma will return triumphant.” 3) “In ‘The Seven Ravens,’ the sister who was the innocent cause of her brothers’ being turned into ravens travels to the end of the world and makes a great sacrifice to undo the spell put on them. The ravens all regain their human form, and happiness is restored.” Of course, regardless of when Lucas wrote that story note, the connection here obviously remains of great interest.

According to 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳 𝘞𝘢𝘳𝘴 by J.W. Rinzler, the “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. . . .” introductory text was added by George Lucas while he was writing the fourth draft, from about mid-October 1975 to early January 1976, after Lucas had been exposed to Bruno Bettelheim's book 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘜𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘌𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘍𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘺 𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴. Lucas himself explains, “I read Bettelheim, and it all began to inform the story and the characters.” But Michael Kaminski claims in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘦𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘵 𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳 𝘞𝘢𝘳𝘴 that it is “impossible” for Bettelheim's book to have influenced Lucas or the script during this period, because Bettelheim's book was not published until after 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳 𝘞𝘢𝘳𝘴 was filmed. He snorts that Rinzler's explanation that Lucas “must have read an advance copy” is “contrived and unrealistic.” But in fact, a substantial excerpt from Bettelheim's book 𝘸𝘢𝘴 published in advance in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘠𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘳, specifically in the December 8, 1975 issue, which, according to my research, would have hit newsstands on December 1 (the Bettelheim excerpt itself is also dated December 1). That's a full month before Lucas completed the fourth draft, and about three and a half months before he completed the revised fourth draft. Tellingly, Lucas mentions the new introductory text for what seems to be the first time during a story conference on December 29, 1975, where he explains various changes he is making to the fourth draft: “I put this little thing on it: 'A long long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, an incredible adventure took place.' Basically it's a fairy tale now.” And indeed, we find the following commentary included in the excerpt of Bettelheim's book published in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘠𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘳 about a month before Lucas made that statement: “The fairy tale conveys from its first words, throughout its plot, and by its ending that the things he is being told about are not tangible facts or real persons and places. ‘Once upon a time,’ ‘In a certain country,’ ‘A thousand years ago, or longer,’ ‘At a time when animals still talked,’ ‘There was once an old castle in the midst of a large and dense forest’—such beginnings suggest that what follows does not pertain to the here and now that we know. . . . the ‘long ago’ implies that we are going to learn about the most archaic events.” Perhaps even more interestingly, we also find this commentary from Bettelheim included in that same 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘠𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘳 excerpt that Lucas is all but confirmed to have read: “Far from being a device used only by fairy tales, such a splitting up of one person into two to keep the good image uncontaminated occurs to many children as a solution to a relationship too difficult to manage or comprehend. While all young children sometimes need to split the image of a parent into its benevolent and threatening aspects in order to feel fully sheltered by the first, most children cannot do it consciously.” Now that is 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘺 interesting, isn't it? Actually, it's downright 𝘧𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨. Let me emphasize again: Based on the evidence, Lucas in all likelihood read the above passage before he had even completed the fourth draft of the original film. What could that mean? It's almost impossible for it not to mean 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨. What a thread to pull! Imagine completely missing this in your “secret history” of 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳 𝘞𝘢𝘳𝘴. Stunning research as always from Kaminski. He really does get everything wrong! Everything!